Rammel record

CELINA, Ohio — Whitley Rammel was a district champion as a freshman.

That same year, she was one spot off reaching the state finals.

Two meets into her junior year, she’s checked off one more accomplishment.

She owns the school record.

Rammel surpassed her throwing coach Holly (Stein) Gann by more than a foot, breaking the shot put school record in helping the Fort Recovery High School girls track team place fifth Friday in the Celina Relays.

“She had a great night tonight,” said FRHS track coach Christy Diller. “She had a little bit of disappointment in the high jump but then she turned it around.

“She actually threw over (the) school record two throws. Gosh, she just went beast mode. She looked great; had a really good night at discus too. Good, solid day for her.”

Host Celina scored 99 points to win the night, with Coldwater finishing three points behind for second place. Fort Recovery had 58 points for fifth out of seven teams.

On the boys side, Celina totaled 106 for the victory and left Coldwater a distant second with 62 points. Fort Recovery earned 36 points for seventh.

Rammel’s first throw of the night surpassed that of Gann, who set the school record of 38 feet, 9.25 inches, in the 2006 state championships. On Rammel’s final throw, she had a whopping 40 feet, 1 inch, leaving no doubt she was to be the best thrower in program history.

And on Friday, Rammel turned in the top overall throw by more than 4 feet. Leipsic’s Sara Cupp was the runner-up with a throw of 36 feet, 0.5 inches.

“It’s the way coach Gann coaches them every day,” Diller said. “She’s been grooming her to do that since day one and it was just a matter of time before it was coming out.

“Coach Gann is phenomenal. That’s pretty awesome to be able to say you coached a kid to beat your own record.”

In discus, Rammel, who was unable to clear the opening height in high jump, had a distance of 111 feet, 11 inches, to place third. Celina sophomore Amelia Lutz had the top throw of 118 feet, 1.5 inches.

The other best individual finish for the FRHS girls came from freshmen Natalie Brunswick and Mara Pearson. As one leg of the 4x1,600-meter relay — four team members each run 1,600 meters and the combined time is determined the “relay” winner — Brunswick had a time of 5 minutes, 35.33 seconds, which was second overall. Classmate Ellie Will turned in a time of 5:50.45, which was good for fourth overall out of 24 total runners. Brynn Stammen (ninth) and Jenna Hart (11th) also helped the Indians win the “relay.”

Pearson had a distance of 15 feet, 11.5 inches, for the top overall distance in long jump.

Fort Recovery’s 4x800 relay team of Kierra Wendel, Megan Diller, Will and Brunswick were second in 10:49.5.

“Our distance girls just had a fun day today,” Diller said. The Tribe’s distance medley relay team of Brynn Stammen, Alli Vaughn, Anna Wendel and Will took fifth out of nine teams. “We have a bunch of distance girls. This meet is great that we can showcase them and everybody gets a chance to shine.

“It is an abundance of blessings to try to figure out because we have so many, where they’re going to go and what they’re going to do.”

The FRHS boys got their lone victory in the 4x100 relay. Riley Hiser, Ross Pearson, Derek Jutte and Gavin Thobe combined for a time of 46.9 seconds, edging Parkway by six hundredths of a second. The 4x200 relay team of Owen Moorman, Reece Guggenbiller, Jutte and Thobe were runners-up in 1:37.81, with Coldwater winning in 1:36.17.

Diller said it was nice to get the boys relays some more practice on handoffs given that half of them — seniors Thobe and Jutte — are first-year track athletes.

Thobe and Jutte were back-to-back in fourth and fifth, respectively, in long jump. Thobe had a jump of 19 feet, 10.5 inches — a career-best feat achieved on his first leap — and Jutte had a distance of 19 feet. Combined with Guggenbiller jumping 18 feet, 4 inches, for seventh place, the Tribe trio had the top combined distance.

“I’m not sure where that came from,” Diller said, noting Thobe increased his career-best by more than 2 feet. “All of the boys jumped lifetime (personal records). Now, we just teach them how to long jump. If we teach them some technique we’ll be in good shape.”